Are you panicking at the thought of an exhibition of your work or relaxing, enjoying and learning from the experience?

This is my stand at the Gallery, my first time in a public setting. The experience taught me quite a few interesting things.

1. It was not as scary as I thought it would be as I shared the venue with 7 other co-workers who are creative in their home time away from work.

2. The artwork was quite varied and so was intriguing to look around the displays and see quite different works from paintings to my books to sculpture to beautiful cut paper work to cartoons, paintings and eclelctic pieces.

3. Friends, family and co-workers were very supportive of the experience. A friend even gave me flowers at the preview night which was just perfect.

4. It was novel for the other gallery contributors as well to be in a combined showing

5. It was not life and death to be seen for what I do and who I am.  It did not change my life in a day but contributed to my life experience.

6. It galvanised me into looking at some of my car photos - rusty old steering wheels and car wheels - and  getting them framed and hung gallery style in our home ready for any future options or showings

My first gallery experience

 

The invitation to the gallery and some of the cups display of my "Are you serious?" cards and my "Pour yourself a cup of..........cards?

One word for 2013 - Unafraid

 

photo found on http://www.facebook.com/TheIDEAlistRevolution

 

I saw this video one word and was inspired to think of a word for 2013

 - my word is - UNAFRAID - I have courage but I need to stop pre-empting where and when I might need to use it

I need to trust that when and if "IT happens" - I will handle it( as I have so many times before)

Some definitions  for unafraid:-
oblivious of dangers or perils or calmly resolute in facing them
free from fear or doubt; easy in mind
Feeling, exhibiting, or expressing no fear 

As part of being unafraid versions of both of my Are you serious? books have just gone to
The Rainbow Serpent Festival - looking forward to what unfolds

Some things to remember

 

I love photographing rusty old cars and making art

It's good to try new things - love jen gray - she started the interest in blogging for me - interesting she popped up in an example of videos for this course I am doing at the moment

Make it happen

How to be alone

Typewriter as art

Ironing as art

Are you focussed or easily distracted?

 So many aspects to this photograph 

One of my favourites

Resistance

Been feeling a lot of resistance lately. I have been trying to figure out why it drains me of energy and I can't remember my passion - it disappears. I tend to not plan and feel that this is a huge problem as I drift between all sorts of things and projects during the day, which I now better understand is Resistance. I also tend to want to do too many things and don't choose to sit and complete or work on one for a period of time. They all seem to compete and nothing substantial is done. Possibly something to do with being a Gemini?  I don't like planning and have never really been one - except for practical things - not for creative things ...mmmmm. I find I am writing more lists lately of things to do and that need to be done if I am to move forward creatively and therefore personally. I am enjoying reading The War of Art and finding strategies to become more structured in my creative time. Partly I feel that this is not my "job" and I "should" be doing something more "productive" or helping in our garden etc . not "playing" ....mmm again. I need to rethink my perspective on what I enjoy doing!!

A good thing though is that I did receive my "business" cards, magnets and note pad that i had to work through in a previous post "what is going on?"    I feel the words "business cards" are the wrong words to use at this point - I will remove the word business and just call them cards as they can be given out for a number of reasons - not just "business".

I feel better about this now.

What is going on??

Not sure what's happening right now. Yesterday I decided to create  a business card based around "Are you serious?" with my name, photo, email address and blog address. I thought it would be a good idea as I am meeting different people now I am on long service leave and after talking to them they are often curious about my blog and my book blog and this is a way of networking and letting them have a look at what I do. As I was creating it through www.vistaprint.com I felt my inner critic rise. Who do you think you are? Who is interested in what you do? Who will buy your books? What do you think you are doing? You will be a laughing stock. How pretentious etc.  I sat with the voice and kept going. I have used the picture that is on my blog - the one of me sipping from a bottle of beer. Again the voice rose - what kind of picture is that?  What will people think ..... ongoing. I like that photo. I am not a beer drinker normally but it was a very hot day and I was at the Lexton family fun day and someone took this photo. I don't seem to be photogenic but this side on view intrigues me. I like it. So I continued on and ordered the cards.

Today I went to pick up my master copy of my second book from Cheryl - a hairdresser - who has ordered more than 20 of my books as gifts and she ordered 3 more of "Are you serious?" version 1 and pre-ordered 2 copies of "Are you serious?" version 2 which is still to be printed. Last week I had sold her 2 copies and another friend sold 1 as well.

 

For some reason I am not believing in myself and need to find out why - this will be ongoing - if anyone reads this and can offer any comment or advice I would greatly appreciate it